Devices for lockably securing garments to a garment rack are known in many forms. Typical examples of such devices are U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,144 to N. E. Webster, one of the co-inventors herein, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,415 to F. R. Pegg.
Known devices of this type have a disadvantage in that they either require special hangers and/or extra equipment associated with the garment rack (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,691 to B. W. Simpson). Another popular garment-securing device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,674 to T. & H. Rosenburg does not prevent separation of the hanger from the garment rack and has the further disadvantage of requiring the garment-securing chain or cable to be removed from the garment before the garment can be moved away from the rack for display to a customer.
The prior art devices are consequently not fully suitable for the handling of secured garments in an ordinary store environment, nor are they suitable for applications in which garments hung on ordinary hangers need to be temporarily firmly secured to a garment rack (e.g., while being transported) and then rehung with a minimum of labor.